Does the devil come after you?
3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ “ — Luke 4:3,4
A friend of mine went through her first spiritual attack last Sunday — at least her first noticeable one since she made the decision to follow Jesus. One friend told her she had left herself open for attack because she read the latest Harry Potter book. One friend told her the devil was trying to tempt her — distract her. She wanted to know my opinion on it. I told her I agreed totally with her second friend. The reason I don’t agree with the first friend is because Jesus was tempted by the devil three times in the wilderness. Jesus didn’t do anything to “open himself up for attack.” The devil is a deceiver and a liar. he will come after every single person, and I think he especially comes after God’s children. Why does he do that? Can he take away our salvation? Absolutely not! What he can do is distract us. In this scripture, we see the devil trying to get Jesus thinking about His physical body and hunger. Instead, Jesus replies with scripture — God’s Word — because He was focused on doing God’s will.
The devil comes after me all the time. “Sure it’d be ok to go read that blog. You can read your Bible later.” “Oh your body is so tired. Lay down and take a nap. The housework can wait another week.” I’m sure you get the point. When we wake up in the morning we need to start the day off with prayer. Prayer to help us be focused on God all day, to not be distracted by the devil, and to obviously see the devil’s lies and tactics for what they are.
Prayer: Lord, I thank you so much for sending Jesus not to just die for my sins, but to give me an example of how I should be living my life. I know I can’t do it alone. Please help me to be strong, to fight off the temptations that may distract me from Your Will, and give me the discernment to know when I’m being attacked and when I’m in Your Will.
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How did I miss this?
I love it…
You’re so good…
you can talk about God and my AC anytime… or maybe I will….
that might be a nice though provoking post… you know since there are none right now…
I agree with you for discouraging your friend from the first friends opinion. Fear of opening oneself up to attack is a fast way to a life lived legalisticly. Such worry is one of the worst distractions from getting to know your loving Father! Many (NOT all) things in this world are not a right or wrong choice. They may be just a bad, good, better or best choice for the individual. I serve a God of Grace and I live my life in color (including the black & white).
I agree with a lot of your post, though I DO think you can leave yourself open to an attack. If you are letting in a little dirt, you will get dirty. (personal experience here.)
But definately all attacks are not because you opened yourself up to them. You will be attacked no matter what as a Child of God. The why isn’t so much a big deal as the what to do about it.